When I awoke from my long slumber, I was unable to move. Yet I was greeted with a world no longer the same.If a mirror were present, I would have been able to see that my eyes were different. One eye had a normal white eye and a black pupil, while the other had a black eye and white pupil. Like the opposite halves of a Yin Yang diagram, it gave off a frightening appearance.
Meanwhile, what I saw was far stranger. On one side was a world of energy that appeared like infrared lights, with red, yellow, orange and other warm colors. The other half was filled with decayed bones and black gunk, as if all the filth of the world was before me.
Luckily, when I canceled the "Stare of the h.e.l.l G.o.d," my eyes returned to normal. Otherwise, I would have had to find a bandage to cover my eyes, like a certain unlucky fellow who was "imprisoned for ten thousand years…" Hmmm. Having bandages over my eyes would actually look quite cool, but going around with a naked upper body would seem quite embarra.s.sing. And I felt that if I uttered that cla.s.sical line, "You seek your own death!", I would collapse of embarra.s.sment halfway through—that would be even more embarra.s.sing.[1]1
I took a deep breath and quickly discovered that the dragon"s blood in the blood pool I was soaking in had decreased by more than half. Meanwhile, some mysterious change seemed to have occurred in my body.
"System?"
I figured that now was the time to consult an expert. At the very least, her showing me my status would be able to help me understand my situation with precise numbers and words.
Unluckily for me, although I could check it, my racial talents and stats kept changing constantly in a quick blur that was impossible to read. My body was still undergoing changes.
"Ha, it would seem that it"s still too early."
My physical body was evidently still evolving. I took a deep breath and intended to place my consciousness back within my Frigidwinter Earth. However, I received a reply from the System at this moment.
[Your physical body is now entering its youth stage. Please choose the direction of your evolution. System Reminder: Please be careful about your choice. There will be no going back.]
I was surprised for a moment upon hearing this, but soon, the System gave me a great amount of information that helped me understand.
[Arbiter Bloodline. 19 Strength, 19 Dexterity, 19 Const.i.tution, 29 Intelligence, 19 Will, 19 Charisma. Racial talents: War Angel Form, Original Sin Demon Form. Overall a.s.sessment: Double Diamond Bloodline. Recommended job cla.s.ses: Order Knight, Chaos Lich King. System Evaluation: Your Arbiter Bloodline is on the border between Order and Chaos and belongs to neither faction, but it"s compatible with both factions. This bloodline with both foundational powers that are so different created a miraculous physical body for you. Perhaps it"s not the strongest body, but it"s by far the one with the most potential.]
I had always found it quite strange. Even though I clearly possessed a Double Diamond Bloodline, it never performed anywhere near as well in battles as the t.i.tan Giants" Semi-Diamond Bloodline. In fact, I felt like it was far weaker than even Little Red"s Immemorial Dragon Bloodline. It was only now that I understood what the problem was.
From a certain standpoint, the System was just like me. Although she never lied, she would often be intentionally misleading with her words.
This time, the part that made me suffer was the final sentence of her explanation, "Perhaps it"s not the strongest body, but it"s by far the one with the most potential."
Whenever a teacher praised a student for having potential, there would typically be an unstated sentence behind it: "This student is currently not that great." And so, what the System gave me was basically an infant"s body. How far it could develop would depend on my path and the choices I made.
And so—intentionally or unintentionally—the System dug a pitfall for me. At the very least, what she gave me wasn"t a complete Arbiter Bloodline, but an infant Arbiter Bloodline, instead.
This was also why my physical body was stuck in a juvenile form. For a young child who had just finished his earliest years of education, whether he became an athlete, artist, musician or whatever in the future would depend on his future studies and practices. Someone at such a young age would first learn to run and speak.
The world was forever unfair—no matter the world. In my previous world of Earth, people gifted in athletics or intelligence could accomplish feats no ordinary person could, no matter how hard the ordinary person worked. For example, in certain sports, Africans were far more skilled than the Chinese, no matter how much the Chinese exercised.[2]2
There were even larger differences between the species in this world, with more obvious imbalances. The beastmen were naturally talented at physical combat, the elves were born with talent in archery and magic, the dragons were skilled at both physical and magical combat but had slow growth rates, and the undead possessed a natural affinity for negative energy. The only race that had balanced skills in all aspects, the humans, were literally the representative of "Jack of all trades, master of none."
The physical body with the most potential? The path leading to the strongest? n.o.body would know what power would be the most suitable for them, or what type of fighting style would lead them down the ultimate path. What power you wanted was the same as the so-called greatest potential: giving you a choice to create the physical body and natural talents you desired the most.
[Discard a minimum of two of your racial natural talents and elaborate how you wish to strengthen yourself. The more detailed you elaborate, the better. System Notification: Congratulations on your graduation from elementary school. It"s time for you to become a middle schooler!]
"As an infant, my growth was balanced. Now that I"m a youth, it is time to make a choice?"
From the information I received from the System I knew that the Arbiter Bloodline was akin to an insect"s metamorphosis. Upon breaking through a bottleneck, this bloodline would evolve. And now, it was time for me to make a choice, one based on my rich experience.
"Choice? Choice? Choosing a path also means choosing something to give up. If something"s the most important, then there exists something that"s not as important."
Indeed. While I would have wanted to be as agile as the elves, as strong as the beastmen, and to have an undead"s natural affinity for negative energy so that I could use negative energy as I pleased, together with an angel"s natural affinity for positive energy, my desires were no good… Even if my ridiculously unreasonable bloodline was able to give me all these traits, the special, unique advantages of each would be lost, and I would only seem ordinary in comparison—nothing would stand out. It would be more of a loss than a gain.
[…War Angel Form, Original Sin Demon Form, Sword of Order, t.i.tan Body, Feet of Ethereal Shadow, Divine Child, and Chaos Barrier. I"m going to have to discard a minimum of two of these abilities? And strengthen the others? Which should I strengthen?]
These were the natural talents my body currently possessed. I was mulling over which were the most useful to me and what fighting style I should adopt in the future. However, I was now stuck in a quandary. All of these abilities were excellent ones, but if I looked at my past uses for them, there were still obvious differences.
I absolutely had to keep the War Angel and Original Sin Demon Forms. No matter if it was in practical combat or the power of Creation within Frigidwinter Earth, they were both incredibly effective. Besides, I felt that since they were the first two abilities that came together with this physical body of mine, I shouldn"t make the choice to discard them. Divine Child was an ability that made it easier for me to perform G.o.d"s Descent with Wumianzhe, which was one of the aces up my sleeve, so naturally I wouldn"t choose to discard Divine Child.
In that case, let"s start the process of elimination with the natural talent I used the least. Of course, planning was always better with more than one person, so I decided to ask the living library Harloys for her advice.
"Feet of Ethereal Shadow is the natural talent I"ve used the least out of all of them. This is the ability for me to escape to the Shadow Plane, which can help me escape from any dangerous situation. However, it also means that I"ve transported myself to another plane, and that I would need to figure out a way to return to the mortal plane afterwards. It won"t be easy for me to return in any short period of time, which is why I"ve never used it at all. Still, it"s a lifesaving ability, which means it might come in useful in the future…"
"…Is it even possible for you to consider escaping? Even when the t.i.tan Giants were right before you just now, weren"t you raring for battle? I think you should just face your true self and change your job cla.s.s to Berserker."
"Hmph, that"s because it wasn"t a life-or-death battle. Otherwise, I definitely would have fled to the Shadow Plane."
As a mage, fleeing when you couldn"t win was completely normal. Mages had far slower growth than other job cla.s.ses to begin with. For any mage who wanted to go out adventuring, preparing two or three specialized "tactical retreat" spells was absolutely necessary. Harloys telling me to change my job cla.s.s to Berserker was a veiled insult—she was basically insulting me by calling me a brainless barbarian.
"No. I feel that as long as you"re forced to the brink, you"d just enter your insanity mode and try to drag your opponent down with him. Back when Aso was casting his forbidden spell, you could have escaped to the Shadow Plane, but instead you attempted to immolate your own soul to take him down with you. Just think about it. Over so many years, have you ever tried to run away even once?"
"…I think so—it"s possible—it seems…. that indeed I haven"t."
"You really are the same as all those stubborn tin can knights."
Now that she said this, I couldn"t help but recall the teachings of Estrada, my Holy Knight teacher who was also known as the strongest Holy Knight. He would prattle on every day for more than three hours on knighthood, which was no different from brainwas.h.i.+ng.
"…We Holy Knights shall never despair. As long as we fight to the end… even if we must sacrifice ourselves, it"s for a worthy cause…"
Actually, the greatest advantage of the Holy Knight job cla.s.s was near absolute immunity to any mental magics related to fear and despair. Adventuring teams were accustomed to having Holy Knights perform the most dangerous tasks. In fact, since there were far too many examples of Holy Knights who loved to sacrifice themselves, back when Beyana in her Betty form was making fun of Holy Knights for this self-sacrificing addiction problem and dragging me away, I couldn"t counter her with anything at all.
Personally, I was the type who didn"t believe that one"s childhood education would affect that person for the rest of their life. But the truth was indeed that even if I was forced to the very brink, as long as there was still a one percent possibility I could turn things around, I wouldn"t even think about escaping. The fact that I had never used this Feet of Ethereal Shadow ability even once was the best evidence.
"So you"re advising me against strengthening this life-saving ability?"
"For you, it"s indeed unnecessary. After all, you"ll never think about running away. Besides, you"re the Undying Roland. Even if you die, you can just start over again."
Alright then. I settled on the first ability to discard. And the second ability, the one I used the second least, was…
"Apart from the Feet of Ethereal Shadow ability that"s used for escaping, the ability that I"ve used the second least is the one to summon a "Sacred Sword" of Order."
I had used this ability for only a few times in the very beginning but practically stopped using it afterwards.
The Sword of Order ability was limited to being used only once per day, and the issue of the short time that the sword could be summoned was also a small one. The greatest regret about this ability was the fact that I didn"t lack for weapons.
Pale Justice, the Roland Sacred Sword, and the Slayer of the Undying Warhammer were all excellent weapons which could act as vessels for Holy Light or the power of Law. Although I gave the G.o.d Equipment Roland Sacred Sword to Reyne, I was now mainly using the Ice Calamity magic sword that my silly cat could transform into ever since she had evolved to possess the powers of "Calamity Chill" and "Hibernation Chill".
And as I improved in my understanding of ice magic, Erebella"s pa.s.sive buff to my ice magic along with the fatal time-freezing Hibernation Chill ability meant that Harloys" transformed Ice Calamity magic sword was just as powerful as the Roland Sacred Sword—reaching the level of G.o.d Equipment.
In that case, the conclusion was quite obvious. The choices for which two abilities to discard had now been decided.
"You don"t lack close-combat attacking methods. The Sacred Sword of Order that purely uses Holy Light and the power of Law is barely of any use to you."
Harloys was being quite reasonable, but why was it that I felt like she only wanted to eliminate her compet.i.tor and become my only beloved sword…? Fine, since I accidentally thought this and forgot about our soul connection, I now needed to figure out how to remove her from my head again. Recently, she somehow learned a technique to make her fangs as tough as diamonds. As she bit into my skull, I was given a headache in more than one meaning of the word…
"So, a close combat ability is meaningless to you, and an escape ability is meaningless to you. That gives us an obvious conclusion. Just what is the natural talent ability you"ve used the most?"
She didn"t even need to ask, because the answer was of course…
[t.i.tan"s Body, Diamond level racial talent: Your physical body possesses the original power of t.i.tan Giants, and every day your skin will become more like that of a t.i.tan Giant. All damage and negative effects are reduced by 30. All damage is reduced by an additional 5.]
[Chaos Barrier, Gold level racial talent: Protect your mind and soul from the suppression of Divine Kingdoms and Soul Worlds. Reduce the effectiveness of all Will-affecting and hallucinatory spells and abilities used against you.]
Yep, the natural talents I used the most were actually these two pa.s.sive, purely defensive abilities. One was used to protect my physical body, while the other protected my soul. These two combined were the main reason I could live to today.
As I looked over the word "t.i.tan" in my ability "t.i.tan"s Body," I couldn"t help but recall the t.i.tan Giant incarnation who didn"t even die against a True G.o.d"s incarnation"s self-destruction. The deepest impression the two t.i.tan Giants left on me was their truly outstanding defensive capabilities.
Thanks to my Frigidwinter Earth, along with my abilities in ice magic, undead magic, Holy Light, and Law—these four different areas—I didn"t lack attack power or attacking methods. However, my greatest weakness was my defense. If someone was accidentally stepped on and squashed to death on a battlefield, they would only be able to take their grudges with them to the grave no matter how powerful or talented they were.
My ice armor containing the Cold Flames of Despair had seemed impossible to break against Emordilorcan, but that had been nothing more than a mere bluff, used to scare someone who valued his own life. If I met with a hotheaded idiot of an enemy who truly rushed over to shatter my armor without caring for their own life, even I myself would have been frozen in time for eternity—and by my own power.
Living on would mean hope still existed, hope that I could win in the end.
"…Perhaps strengthening my defensive abilities is the most suitable path for me to take."
[…I don"t recommend you to choose this direction of evolution. Unless you have t.i.tan Giant body parts to help, you won"t be able to evolve as strongly as you wish for. And once you make your choice, you"ll be unable to change your mind. System Reminder: It"s your own fault for not completing the t.i.tan Giant Hunting Quest. Try again next time.]
Although the System was being quite critical of me, I could tell that the System was, in her own way, looking out for me.
The fact that she gave me Quests while I was battling against Zero was probably because Zero"s knowledge would be one of the greatest possible benefits for me. It would be an excellent chance for me to improve my overall understanding of undead magic and fix my Undead Magic Soul Imprint. Meanwhile, my t.i.tan"s Body ability was probably the most suitable direction for me to evolve my physical body. The Immemorial Red Dragon Bloodline evolution Quest was very easy due to Little Red"s a.s.sistance against Molly, and the rewards for that were pretty much nothing more than a consolation prize.
Just the recent battle against the t.i.tan Giants made it easy to see that the dragons" physical strength and the t.i.tan Giants" physical strength were on completely different levels. If I chose the Dragon Bloodline"s evolution path, although it would greatly increase my physical body"s strength and maybe even give me dragon-based attacks, the pure defensive prowess of a Dragon Bloodline wouldn"t be anywhere close to the t.i.tan Giant Bloodline"s.
I hesitated now as well. After working so hard to reach this step, taking a wrong path would really be pitiful.
I could already guess at what abilities evolving myself with a Dragon Bloodline would give me. After all, dragons were all true to their base desires so there were many other species with partial dragon blood in them. Not only that, there were quite a few Dragon Bloodline Warlocks in this world, and all the Dragon Bloodline abilities had already been thoroughly researched by others.
Of course, the Dragon Bloodline would greatly improve the base physical stats of ordinary people who had much weaker bodies. However, since my base stats were far too high compared to most, the increase for me would likely be limited. I didn"t want to take this path if possible.
The Dragon Bloodline could also help me to grow dragon scales. In the past, I would have said that having my own personal dragonscale armor on my body would make me impregnable due to its high defense against both physical and magic attacks. But I already possessed the power ability t.i.tan"s Body and had witnessed the ridiculous defensive prowess of real t.i.tan Giants. How could I possibly be satisfied with mere dragon scales?
The Dragon Bloodline could also help me grow dragon wings and give me the ability of flight. While flight seemed like a simple power, it was forever a practical one. The unfortunate part was that I already possessed my War Angel form. As my power level increased, the time I could keep myself in the War Angel form—as well as number of transformations per day—kept increasing. So this power of flight from the Dragon Bloodline would be quite useless.
The Dragon Bloodline could also give me the ability to use dragon breath, which was indeed a powerful attack. It would have a wide area of affect, powerful strength, and quick activation. But the main problem with this was just as I had mentioned earlier: I didn"t lack attacking methods. Still, this ability would be the best out of all these mostly useless abilities the Dragon Bloodline would give me.
I could also obtain dragon claws and a dragon tail to increase my physical combat prowess… but honestly, that would be the most useless of all. I was no monk who specialized in barehanded combat; I used swords. This emptyhanded combat strength would be meaningless, and possessing dragon claws would even lower my skill with the sword as I would need to get used to gripping a sword with claws instead of hands.
And if I really did grow claws, fangs, and a tail, apart from ruining my handsome appearance, I was even more worried about a certain legendary individual. Yep, I"m talking about a certain dracon who mysteriously managed to tame even a divine beast! He was more familiar with dragons than anyone! He could definitely accomplish anything!
The more I thought about it, the more I was regretting things. Not only was a Dragon Bloodline evolution mostly useless to me, but it might even be dangerous for me…
Wait a moment. Suddenly, an outrageous idea came to mind. I turned to Harloys and Erebella who were being forced to soak in dragon"s blood together with me due to their soul contracts. If this idea of mine worked, then this Dragon Bloodline evolution would no longer be useless. Instead, it would actually be a shortcut to improving my overall combat strength.
And so, I hesitatingly made my request to my System.
However, I was met with a long period of silence, as if the System was making its calculations. Yet, I was delighted at this, as what I was most afraid of was instant refusal. This doubtlessly meant that my idea was possible to carry out.
[…There will be a fee of 150,000 Fate Points. Haggling… is impossible. This is the final price!]
I instantly became furious upon hearing this. I currently possessed 143,451 Fate Points—just a little short. By naming such a price, wasn"t the System making it obvious that she wanted me to suffer?
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Even making a new body for me wouldn"t be this expensive. Also, why does it just happen to be more Fate Points than what I have right now? Don"t even think for a moment that I don"t know why it"s always a whole number—it"s because you"re always raking in the profits by jacking up the prices!"
[You think my prices are too expensive? Feel free to shop at other stores.]
Alright then. This condescending tone made me instantly imagine a female merchant picking her nose while looking down on me.
While I really wanted to shop elsewhere, my System had a full monopoly in that market. What other store could I possibly shop at? Not only that, this monopoly was the type where I was already stuck on a pirate s.h.i.+p, with nowhere else to run to! It was just like if someone purchased a computer system, they would be forced to continue downloading that system"s patches and purchasing additional system services! Otherwise, all sorts of system loopholes and viruses would kill you.
"…You win. What should I do about the points shortage? Can I just owe you the rest?"
I had now realized that the System was pretty much intending to suck me dry of all my Fate Points and was probably intending to force me into doing those ridiculous Daily Quests.
[No.]
When I heard this, I paused in surprise. I never expected her to actually refuse. Could it be that she was nice enough for once to only give me the manufacturing cost"s price, which was why I wasn"t allowed to owe her money?
If that was really the case, what was I supposed to do? Give up on this idea of mine that I finally came up with? Force myself to use the Dragon Bloodline evolution? I really didn"t want to do that!
[You can owe me the rest, but you need to pay the remainder in Justice Points. First, give the 2300 Justice Points you possess right now to me, and pay a deposit on the item I want.]
Fine then. I had underestimated a certain black-bellied System"s lack of limits. At this moment, I couldn"t help but think of certain pitiful men back in my previous world. Without even having received their salaries yet, their women would already lay claim to it. At such a time, as a manly man, I could only sigh deeply, and then… lower my head and beg for mercy!
"…You win, but please leave me at least 100 Justice Points of spare change! You also know that it"s not so easy for me to come by Justice Points."
Yet no matter how pitiful a man acted, the woman wouldn"t let him go so easily.
[I"ll leave you 50 Justice Points. There"s no need to thank me. Pay the rest of the balance within six months; otherwise, there will be a 40% compound interest rate.]
[You understand how it is.]
Note:
[1] TL/N: Illidan Stormrage reference, from World of Warcraft.
[2] ED/N: Is this true? I couldn"t find any reliable sources on the web with information that said such.TL/N: Illidan Stormrage reference, from World of Warcraft.ED/N: Is this true? I couldn"t find any reliable sources on the web with information that said such.